Chapter 28#

Such a dreadful thing, encountering it is a calamity for anyone.

Ji Chen went from being baffled to losing his wits. His instinctive reaction was to go on the forum to clarify, but he was stopped by a phone call from “Black-rimmed glasses,” who said it would only make things worse: “Don’t provide new material for gossip. The most important thing is to delete it quickly.”

“Black-rimmed glasses” helped contact the forum administrator, but the administrator saw the message with a delay and only locked the thread and banned the account at this time.

But after nearly two hours of fermentation, those who should have taken screenshots had already done so.

In the small society of a university where interpersonal connections are close, gossip spreads like wildfire. Those students who had just come back from class and hadn’t eaten the melon in time were frantically asking each other: “Which post? Did you save it? Send it to me to see?”

At 8:30 PM, “Black-rimmed glasses” finally found Ji Chen himself, hugging his knees in the pavilion at the heart of the school lake.

Although he was the victim, he dared not return to the dormitory, afraid to face all kinds of scrutinizing gazes and heated discussions.

On the cusp of public opinion, anyone who knew Ji Chen, classmates from the same class or department, couldn’t help but crane their necks when they met him on the road, curious to see if his attire really showed evidence of being kept by a sugar daddy.

And what outsiders could see, the watch on Ji Chen’s wrist, the shoes on his feet, the clothes on his body, were indeed mostly branded goods given by Fu Weishan.

It is reasonable for lovers to give gifts, but lies are most feared when half true and half false; mixed together, they become indistinguishable. Others wouldn’t ask in detail where his things came from, but they would imagine internally, and those curious gazes made Ji Chen breathless.

At 9:00 PM, “Black-rimmed glasses” accompanied Ji Chen to calm down by the lake for a long time and helped analyze who would frame him.

In the end, they locked onto one person, Yang Baoshan, the boy who secretly threw away Ji Chen’s financial aid application form last semester.

“Black-rimmed glasses” harbored a bit of righteousness. On impulse, he dragged the shrinking Ji Chen to confront that boy.

Yang Baoshan was called downstairs from the boys’ dormitory. He seemed a bit guilty and didn’t answer directly, but blustered with a lot of sarcastic remarks like “So what if it is, so what if it isn’t,” and “You know in your heart whether you did it or not” to provoke Ji Chen.

Just when “Black-rimmed glasses” was angry enough to hit him, the alerted counselor arrived.

This counselor heard about the incident in his class while on a date with his girlfriend. Shocked, he was also somewhat impatient.

In the empty student activity room, one teacher and three students began to argue about this matter.

Yang Baoshan denied posting the thread.

Ji Chen refused to admit he was being kept.

The two argued. Yang Baoshan was a smooth talker, while Ji Chen was clumsy with words—last time he couldn’t even out-talk the other party about the lost application form, and this time he was also destined to lose, even with “Black-rimmed glasses” caught in the middle pulling for him.

Ji Chen’s face turned red, and he could only look at the counselor: “Please believe me, I guarantee with my character, I really didn’t.”

But the counselor actually didn’t want to distinguish between right and wrong—because no matter which student was punished, it would be his problem.

He only hoped that “nothing happened in my class, and I don’t want to be noticed by the college leaders.”

Therefore, the counselor still upheld the attitude of “turning big problems into small ones and small problems into nothing,” punishing both sides equally and lecturing each of them.

He demanded that Yang Baoshan unite with classmates and pay attention to his words and deeds, and educated Ji Chen to keep himself clean and not go down the wrong path.

In an instant, anger overwhelmed Ji Chen’s mind: “So you still think I’m being kept, right?”

The counselor said: “You say you aren’t, he says he isn’t. Unless you haven’t done it, people won’t know. Just be clear with yourself.”

This sentence was like the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Ji Chen could no longer endure it, turned his head, and ran out.

“Black-rimmed glasses” quickly chased after him, but he ran out and couldn’t even see a shadow. But Ji Chen’s phone was still in his hand. In modern society, without a phone, a person is completely lost. The counselor panicked a little and quickly called a few teachers to search separately.

Out of worry, “Black-rimmed glasses” didn’t return to the dormitory either. He kept searching and wandered until midnight.

This led to the scene where he didn’t bring his ID card and could only make phone calls on the street.

The two occupied a bed each, and for a moment, no one spoke.

Some felt surprised and quietly gasped, while others had long heard the rumors and were just waiting to watch the fight from the sidelines.

Separated by a not-too-far, not-too-close distance, Yan Zishu looked up at Fu Weishan.

Fu Weishan smiled humbly, but like most of the Fu family here, he wouldn’t give his lackey a straight look at all.

“Black-rimmed glasses” scratched his head: “I hope so. It’s really a calamity from the sky; how could we encounter such a thing.”

After a while, he couldn’t help but talk about the discord last semester: “This semester Ji Chen submitted his financial aid application early. I guess Yang Baoshan got jealous again. It’s only for a little money, yet he messes with others like this. This guy is too vicious.”

Yan Zishu thought, isn’t the human heart just this sinister?

And thinking about Ji Chen’s current attire, it was actually like what the post said, not quite the style of a poor student anymore.

Yan Zishu knew this because many of them were bought by Fu Weishan instructing him or Helen. After tearing off the price tags, they said they weren’t expensive, just ordinary clothes, and then gave them to Ji Chen. Ji Chen didn’t know the goods well and believed it all.

So in Ji Chen’s perception, he didn’t feel he was any different from before. But others knew the goods. Seeing his wealth all over, yet still applying for financial aid, even if they weren’t jealous or slanderous like Yang Baoshan, they would probably inevitably have other thoughts.

Perhaps with his experience, he couldn’t quite realize that when people cross classes, they are mostly subjected to oppression.

Yan Zishu asked in a roundabout way: “So your counselor doesn’t intend to investigate the cause, but only plans to suppress the matter, right?”

He received a disdainful nod from “Black-rimmed glasses”: “He is just that kind of cowardly person who is afraid of trouble and doesn’t dare to take any responsibility.”

Afterward, Yan Zishu got various details he needed from his mouth to complete the follow-up actions.

“But does Ji Chen really have a boyfriend outside?” Finally, “Black-rimmed glasses” asked tentatively, “Is it the one from last time?”

“It’s hard to say.” Yan Zishu changed the topic, “You’re tired too, go wash your face and lie down for a sleep.”

His aura was more than enough to suppress a college boy, carrying an undeniable pressure.

“Black-rimmed glasses” didn’t make a fuss about going out to find someone anymore, and did as he was told.

That night, Yan Zishu didn’t go back to the apartment either, and just closed his eyes for a while in this guest house.

At six in the morning, the sky was bright, early risers appeared downstairs, and the brushing sound of sanitation workers sweeping the streets came from afar.

Yan Zishu woke up “Black-rimmed glasses” who was sleeping soundly, said he was leaving, and advised him to go back to school early.

“Black-rimmed glasses” was groggy, then remembered yesterday’s farce: “Brother Yan, what should we do today? Is there anything I can do?”

This boy seemed to have a strong male chauvinist complex; the weaker the object, the more it aroused his desire to protect.

Yan Zishu gave him a steady answer: “You go back to class, the matter will be resolved.”

“Black-rimmed glasses” nodded repeatedly, inexplicably convinced.

Yan Zishu left the guest house one step ahead.

Saying he was going to find someone, he didn’t hesitate and had a clear direction, actually knowing his destination clearly.

The school teachers couldn’t find Ji Chen in the middle of the night because the protagonist “shou” always suffers some accidents when frustrated—Ji Chen would have a car accident while avoiding a skidding car in the rain, causing a fracture, and be sent to the municipal hospital by a kind person.

Ji Chen didn’t bring his ID and phone; others couldn’t contact him, and he found it difficult to contact anyone he knew.

After tossing and turning for half the night, calculating the time, he should be miserably waiting for someone to handle the follow-up now.

So “Black-rimmed glasses” actually didn’t know that this “Brother Yan” in his eyes, who descended from the sky, was calm in the face of trouble, and mature, knew in advance that Ji Chen would be slandered anonymously, knew that Ji Chen would suffer a car accident because of this, and also saw how he was worried all night.

But he still chose to let things slide and be a spectator, and only walked over step by step after the things happened.

Yan Zishu had actually rejoiced that Ji Chen was sent to the emergency room due to a car accident, rather than falling into some manhole and soaking all night.

Otherwise, he might still need to face the torment of his conscience, mainly because the latter would be much more troublesome to control the timing of rescue.

Yan Zishu found it difficult to define himself whether this counted as cold-blooded and ruthless.

But for a moment, this mentality even reminded him of Fu Jinchi’s relaxed tone of always watching from the sidelines.

At first, his impression of that person was like a social butterfly causing trouble everywhere.

It’s just that he didn’t know since when he started to realize that Fu Jinchi was also a wicked spectator.

Perhaps in the subconscious… it was this essential sense of being the same kind that facilitated their secret collusion.

But Yan Zishu was a bit baffled that he would think of Fu Jinchi at this time; he was not free now.

*

Yan Zishu hailed a car and rushed to the municipal hospital, quickly found out from the emergency department where the patient sent in the middle of the night was, first went to see the party involved—Ji Chen curled up on the hospital bed pretending to sleep, probably deliberately not wanting to face him, which was fine, Yan Zishu didn’t have to greet him—and then went to send off the kind passerby who advanced the emergency fees and the medical staff.

Later, when Fu Weishan walked into the ward, this seemingly dutiful assistant had already reported the ins and outs of the whole matter.

Ji Chen raised his head with red eyes, choking up with just one sound: “Sorry, I caused you trouble again…”

He wiped his eyes as if to cover up, holding back tears all night, but the grievances burst like a dam the moment he saw Fu Weishan.

Yan Zishu leaned against the wall in the corridor, watching a young nurse holding an IV stand, supporting an old lady moving forward slowly and patiently.

The old lady’s handkerchief fell out of her pocket; he bent down to pick it up and returned it to her, receiving a kind thanks in return.

After the doctor’s treatment, Ji Chen’s leg was in a cast, and there were scratches on his face. His clothes were dirty, full of wretched traces after the muddy water dried, like a stray cat abandoned by its owner with a broken leg.

Although so, it wasn’t that ugly wretchedness plastered all over the face, but round red eyes, a small red nose, and petal-like lips. On the white skin, the traces of scratches were shocking, fully evoking pity.

So at the moment of entering the door, Fu Weishan felt a wonderful emotion called heartache spreading outward.

His first thought was: someone dares to touch his things, they must be tired of living.

*

Undoubtedly, Yang Baoshan, this cannon fodder who dared to touch the protagonist “shou,” was definitely tired of living. The counselor was about the same.

After leaving the ward that day, Fu Weishan’s face turned cold: “This matter cannot be left like this.”

Yan Zishu naturally agreed, pretending not to see the two inside who were affectionately hugging and gnawing at each other just now.

This incident was indeed a big blow to Ji Chen, plus the injury and hospitalization, he hadn’t shown his face in the company for a while.

Fu Weishan had been busy comforting his little lover recently, leaving these loose ends for the people below to toss about.

The night staying at the guest house, “Black-rimmed glasses” had also indignantly sighed: “The most hateful thing is that rumors are spread by a mouth, but refuting them breaks legs. Encountering such rumors, one will be smeared black no matter what. Is there any way to clarify?”

At that time, Yan Zishu analyzed it with his familiar professional thinking: “Clarifying the demands will do.”

“Demands?” “Black-rimmed glasses” was blank, “What demands?”

“Nothing.” Yan Zishu said, “Continue talking about the counselor.”

Actually, it is like this: to complete a work task is to analyze the task demands and then solve them one by one against the list.

If the first demand was regarded as “helping the protagonist ‘shou’ slap faces,” within a week, Yan Zishu resolutely handled many things.

Including using the favor of Fu Weishan donating to various laboratories and education funds to pressure the leaders of Ji Chen’s department, urging an investigation into the fairness of past (mainly last semester’s) scholarship and grant evaluations and distribution, as well as catching the pigtails of Yang Baoshan and the counselor.

Without suspense, the investigation results proved that Yang Baoshan maliciously intercepted a classmate’s legitimate application and used a proxy IP to post anonymous slander against a classmate on the campus network. The nature was relatively bad, seriously violating student discipline, and he was given a major demerit and a serious warning.

The counselor deliberately shielded and indulged the above behaviors. Despite hiding, he still failed to evade responsibility and received corresponding punishment.

The punishment results of both teacher and student were issued by the college in official documents as a warning to others.

And the second demand could be determined as “helping the protagonist ‘shou’ whitewash,” not to mention that this storm also dragged Yinghan Group into it.

Therefore, while Yan Zishu was busy dealing with the above matters, the company’s public relations department took charge of the whitewashing.

The PR department had a frequently cooperating PR company, organizing a PR team to suppress comments and control public opinion on the Nanhua University campus forum, shifting the focus of discussion to Yang Baoshan and the counselor, diverting students’ attention from eating melons, and incidentally mixing in many water army accounts to guide the rhythm.

After busy for about two weeks, they presented a complete report of their work results to Yan Zishu’s desk.

What the report could present were intuitive data—such as how large the traffic of the anonymous post was, how large the traffic of the whitewashing post was, how many times the latter covered the former, how many posts and floors discussing the Ji Chen incident were deleted, how many IPs were banned…

Although this looked somewhat like that, the human heart really couldn’t be quantified, only data could.

And with this report as a base, it tentatively got Fu Weishan’s nod.

During this period, because Ji Chen suffered a leg injury from the car accident, living in the dormitory would be inconvenient, not to mention the residual heat of the rumor storm hadn’t completely passed. Going back to his own home would worry his mother, so after being discharged, he accepted Fu Weishan’s invitation and moved to the other party’s home.

Fu Weishan had many properties. Yan Zishu helped Ji Chen move into a suite in the city where he often lived.

Ji Chen looked at the transparent and bright loft apartment, supported by a special caregiver, looking up and examining, appearing a bit cramped.

Yan Zishu patted his shoulder and said, you’ll get used to it after living for a long time. He also instructed the caregiver to take good care of him.

To put it bluntly, this part of the plot relied on external conflicts to push the protagonist “gong” and “shou” into disguised cohabitation.

After all, only by living under one roof would there be more opportunities for in-depth communication.

A very cliché development direction.

However, it was too early to say.

If the plot became “unconventional,” the degree of going off the rails would be enough to make one jump.

Even Yan Zishu, who had refocused his energy on project work, didn’t expect that when he felt something was wrong, that fleeting intuition was accurate. But by the time he realized it, this on-campus storm caused by Yang Baoshan maliciously framing Ji Chen continued to ferment for a while, until it brought a not-so-big not-so-small public opinion crisis to Yinghan Group.